Waiting
by Team Alpha Wolf Squadron
Summary: Instead of Rose it was Ianto picked up in London. Travelling with the Doctor, he meets people and sees things he never thought he would.


Time travel. If Ianto had even thought about the possibilities of it being real when he was a child he would have been the first to try and find a way to do it. It wasn't that he had anything to change, or any thing he particularly wanted to see. He was curious, that was all. Curious about how things had changed, hoe people were the same across all spans of time, how life still continued even when it felt like everything around him had crumbled to nothing.

He was shoplifting when he found the Doctor. Nineteen, and with no prospect in life other than to try find some purpose, which, for now, was stealing from a shop so he could replace the tacky, ripped shirt on his body.

He'd come to London with high hopes of joining some big corporation and showing his friends back home that he didn't need university to make something of his life. Of course, that wasn't going to happen, not for Ianto, life just wouldn't be that kind to him. He had three interviews, and three employers show him the door as soon as they heard someone more qualified or from a better family was after him. They cared little for straight A's and a knack for learning, London was a bit backwards in that respect. They still saw anyone worthwhile as someone who came from a red bricked university, or a prominent family.

Four weeks in, no job and his savings running out meant he could no longer stay in the abysmal accommodation he'd originally sook harbour in. His pride stopped him from calling his sister, who had her own problems, or his mother who had been so proud when he said he was going to London to make a life. So he ended up there, at the back of the shop after hours trying to take a security tag off before the ink stained the shirt.

He honestly didn't expect to meet the Doctor when a mannequin tried to strangle the life out of him. A man who was more excitement than Ianto had ever expected to meet in London. It had taken everything he had to track down the Doctor again when he disappeared from the shop, blowing it up in their escape. He'd used every trick in the book to research and listen to the whispers about the Doctor, hardly believing when the whispers made him appear again when another mannequin of death tried to maul him.

It was only natural after all that adventure, and with nothing really to tie him back to London, that when the Doctor asked Ianto said yes. He saw things he never thought he would as he travelled. The end of the world one such notable thing. He had been fascinated by the aliens, listening intently as the Doctor went off on tangents about this or that. He watched as such things that he had only seen on his own kind before, the kindness of strangers, and the fact that even in the future the wealthy still reigned over all, kept him entertained as the countdown continued to tick down.

'Enjoying yourself?' he heard at one point in the celebrations. A head, a giant head in a jar who had been called the Face of Boe, sidled up next to him, dark eyes fixed on Ianto instead of the party he had organized.

'Of course sir.'

Loud laughter echoed like a cavern, Ianto wondering how no one was looking their way with the pure noise of this things laugh. It was only when he spoke again that Ianto realized it was sounding in his head. Telepathy. How fascinating.

'Sir, now there's something I never thought I'd here again. It was good to see you Jones, Ianto Jones.'

With that the floating head of Boe went to mingle with the rest of his guests, leaving Ianto standing there like he'd just had one side of a very long conversation. It was confusing, but there was little time to dwell on it since the whole spaceship they were on was under attack not long after.

They went to planet after planet afterwards, the Doctor showing off like an overgrown child, and Ianto taking it all in stride, his mind soaking up the pure knowledge that came out of everything he did.

They came back to Earth eventually, if only so the Doctor could prove to Ianto he wasn't truly kidnapping him. They were about a year out from when they left, Ianto breathing in the familiar smog that was London's streets.

'You know I'm actually Welsh,' Ianto said as they walked down memory lane.

'Are you?'

Ianto couldn't tell if the Doctor was joking or not, sometimes he would just pull this face like he actually didn't have a clue about humanity at all. Ianto played into that look more often than not, the Doctor turning around with a laugh to tell him that he did actually know these things, he wasn't as stupid as he looked.

Just like now.

'You have an accent Ianto. It would stupid to think you were actually a Londoner considering how thick it still is. What were you, three, four weeks, here before I picked you up?'

'Four.'

They argued accents until a spaceship crashed into Big Ben. The Slitheen situation followed not long after that, and before Ianto knew it they were off again to another alien planet. Ianto got the sense after a while that they were avoiding something on Earth. What, he didn't know. But he wasn't stupid, no matter how many times the Doctor said humans were, and he could tell there was something he was avoiding. Knowing the Doctor it was trouble.

Sometimes, when it was particularly quiet in the TARDIS, or when the Doctor would take off without telling him, Ianto would wonder why on Earth he even kept him around. He wasn't that good with technology, and the things the Doctor introduced him to made him feel like even if he was he would still be lightyears behind a good standard to him. He wasn't good on his feet either. Sure, he was stealthy, he had to be breaking into places. But stealthy was all he had. When he ran he was most certainly caught, the only reason he'd avoided so far due to his brain finding good hiding places to bunker down in. He wasn't good at fighting, which, he supposed with the Doctor and his want for peace, was actually a good thing. Really, the most he had to offer were the menial things he did around the TARDIS. Cleaning up the mountains of things the Doctor had piled up over the years. It took him three days, or what he thought were three days, they could have just been naps interspersed throughout one, to clean up the Doctor's wardrobe. More hours than he thought it would to scrub the rails that he often found himself clutching during flight to within an inch of their lives, and hoping all these things would keep him on board for another flight.

He feared his good luck had timed out when they turned up in London again. It wasn't like he had been especially helpful of late. First with the Dalek, which, in his defence wasn't really his fault. He'd been trying to hold the Doctor back from getting them both locked up inside Van Statten's museum when one of the lackey's/ torturer's knocked him sideways and onto the so called Metaltron. Then there was that ridiculous station they landed on, Ianto holding his tongue more than once as Adam proved once and for all that he was the inferior companion in terms of smarts on this trip. With all their talk of science Ianto had never felt more like a tourist, taking off from them when the Doctor started showing off the amazing world that was the human race's future.

It didn't bode well that almost as soon as they had dropped Adam off they turned up in London again. It was dark, the smell of London diluted but still there as the Doctor skipped out the TARDIS and started down the alley they were in.

'What's going on?'

The Doctor grinned, so at least Ianto didn't have to worry about being on his wrong side. 'That bang, just before, that was a spacecraft, way beyond the technologies of this time. Fallen out of time and landing in the middle of London. Don't know about you Ianto but the last time something like this happened it wasn't exactly good.'

No, it wasn't he supposed. The Slitheens had been especially nasty, and if something like them had landed Ianto supposed it was only their duty to go investigate. He managed to hide the smile creeping up on his face, the knowledge that he wasn't being left behind just yet making him giddy inside.

The distraction however, was enough for the Doctor to go gallivanting on his own to who knew where, leaving Ianto stranded once again in the middle of somewhere he didn't have a clue to navigate.

'That's it, I'm getting him a bell,' Ianto decided just as he heard something call from above. 'Doctor!' he called, half hoping the Doctor wasn't too far away to hear him. Yet the Doctor didn't come rushing back and Ianto noted in fear that the child, standing on the ledge above, was far too dangerously close to the edge to go find him. 'Damn it. Stay there.'

The child had a gasmask on, the only thing he could really distinguish in the dark. The long black eyes were shining in the smog filtered moonlight, the nose shining briefly as the silver gave it life. It looked eerily like something from the war, which war he couldn't say, but any war was bad. The closer he got to the child the more he could make out, and not just with his eyes, the child was saying something, the noise distorted from his mask covering his mouth, but clearer the further up Ianto climbed.

'Are you my mummy?' breached Ianto's ears just as he made it to the roof. The child, seeming to grow tired of the ignorance, took one last look at Ianto before bolting from the edge of the roof and into the darkness.

'No, wait!' If he was right, and this kid was actually fitting in with his time period instead of some shoddily made memorial costume, then this wasn't a place where children should just go wandering on a night. The multitude of adventures with the Doctor reminded him why else it was a bad idea to leave a kid alone. If that spacecraft had indeed dropped somewhere around here then a kid wandering on his own could oh so easily be made collateral in whatever was inside the crafts plan.

The roof made him trip a little as he ran across the bumpy grain, but weeks of running away from people in London had his feet picking themselves up again before he could so much as stop.

The kid was out of sight. He couldn't even hear it calling anymore. Ianto took one more rooftop before catching his breath, sure that if he couldn't find him now it was probably certain he had lost the boy.

He didn't have time to catch his breath for long. No sooner had air got to his lungs did his feet come out from under him, the world turned upside down, his head hit the roof with a sickening crunch and the next thing he knew he was looking at what looked like London at a rave. There were lights roaming everywhere, sirens echoing around his ears, he could barely think with his head banging along to the same tune. When he could think he almost wished he couldn't.

His foot, his bloody foot, was caught in a rope, the thing thick and looping around his ankle. His breath caught again as his mind told him that, oh my god, if his foot moved just an inch too much, or the blimp- bloody blimp- he was hanging off turned just too fast he would fall to his death.

Once his many ways of dying had went through his mind he turned his attention to not dying. The rope he was attached to was long, hanging far below him even as his foot tried to angle it away. If he could just grab it, he could probably swing himself the right way around. Without the blood rushing to his face he was sure he could make a better plan. All he had to do was make sure the rope didn't fall off his ankle as he twisted himself around. So much simpler in his brain than in real life.

It took him three attempts, and his heart nearly falling out his mouth before he got the rope in hand. Twisting was another matter altogether. By the time he was half upright he was wishing he had just tried to find the Doctor.

'Never go off on your own,' Ianto muttered, 'You know by now, never go off on your own. What the hell were you thinking? That's right, you weren't.' His words weren't making him feel better, they never did. But if he didn't get them out somehow he'd find himself snapping at someone- probably the Doctor- later, and he didn't want to go home. Not yet.

He decided to work on his upper arm strength in the coming days. Hanging from his feet was alright since it wasn't really pulling at anything except his shoe. His arms on the other hand were stinging and he wasn't even upright yet.

He was there, he was actually holding on to the rope the right way up when he felt like he was falling. No, not falling, floating. His hands were no longer holding onto the blimps rope, his arms no longer stinging, and Ianto wondered how his brain had missed letting go.

He closed his eyes, hoping his death wouldn't hurt that bad, when he finally fell. Only, the ground was a lot nicer than he thought it would be. They almost cradled him, like arms around- he jumped, scampering away from the man who was making some kind of innuendo.

He hadn't died after all. Instead he was standing on some kind of ship. He knew because he could hear the metal clanging under his feet as he walked. It wasn't that large however, the man making another grab at him as his feet hit dead air.

'Steady there. How about we take this inside? You look like you could use a drink.'

Ianto didn't know how it happened. He swore he wasn't usually this easy, but one moment he was wondering how the hell he had just survived sudden death, and the next he was having champagne on an invisible ship tethered to Big Ben.

'So, does my handsome damsel have a name or should we just forgo all that and get to the good stuff?'

'Jones, Ianto Jones.' He held his hand out, telling himself not to blush at the kiss Captain Jack Harkness gave it instead of a shake. 'It's nice to meet you sir.'

'Ianto. Unusual.' Even the way he said Ianto's name had his heart fluttering. It had to be biological. Which meant: spaceship, hormones in a panic and the fact he was freely drinking champagne in a time of rationing meant that he was an alien. A very handsome alien.

Still, Ianto scoffed, playing along to this little game they had set up. 'Hardly,' he said, 'I was one of seven in my year group.'

Captain Harkness grinned. 'Well to me it's unusual, and definitely hot. See, where I come from everyone's gone back to those old names. You know, traditional Franklin's, Adam's mixed in with those obviously inane names like you would only hear celebrities kids called. Ianto... well, that's a name I haven't heard.'

'Take a trip to Wales. You'll be sick of hearing it by the end of the day.' The two of them laughed, the champagne making Ianto giddy, or maybe it was the brush with certain death. In any case, when Jack pulled out the old music and asked for a dance, Ianto let himself be dragged up.

He got a feeling halfway through the first song that there was something more to Captain Harkness than this niceness he was showing. There was no way he saved Ianto just because he saw him in peril. The champagne, the flirting, if Ianto was a woman, actually, he started thinking about that again, screw him being a woman, he was definitely being played by Jack. There was something he wanted, something Ianto had, and sooner than later he was going to make his move.

But God he smelled good.

'So, Captain Harkness Sir,' If that is your real name, Ianto's Bond tracked brain finished, 'with all this technology I'd have thought you'd be looking for things much more exciting than me.'

The huff said it all. 'Well, now that you mention it.'

It was one thing to go time travelling with an alien. Another to learn that sometime in the future the human race developed machines that could do it too. Ianto was fascinated. He wondered if it was aliens that helped the human race along to get to that stage or whether it was all this sci-fi dreaming that eventually garnered results. So many questions continued to fall through his mind as Jack went on to talk about why he was here in London at this time.

As it turned out they had something in common.

'You know where it landed?'

'Of course,' Jack said, 'It's mine.' He sighed then like he was making some big sacrifice, and Ianto knew the words out of his mouth like they were his own. 'But I guess I could sell it to you. For the right price.'

The one good thing about being a criminal was that it was all too easy to spot another. Just the way in which he'd done this whole façade told Ianto he'd been at it a while. The ship was probably worthless too, more than once Ianto had broke into a shop to steal something in the hopes he could sell it on for a better price. Anything to get some money to live on.

'I'll have to confer with my partner,' Ianto said, plans already being made on how they could get a hand on Jack's ship without spending a penny. 'He's really the one with the say in this. I just tag along for the ride.'

'I bet you do.' Business took over from flirting as Jack notably, (and Ianto if he were offering tips would have told him it probably would have been best to carry on the flirting a while longer) changed faces. The hands lost their sensual touch on Ianto's sides, the hint of lust in his eyes fading as he proposed they go find this partner of Ianto's.

It took technology Ianto pretended not to have the faintest grasp of what it did, to track the Doctor to the hospital. All the while Ianto played the fawning buyer, amusing himself with trying to make plans for after business was done. A promised finished picnic Ianto knew for a fact wouldn't happen since Jack was sure to run off as soon as they were done, was decided. Along with another dance, a nice dinner and even Jack taking Ianto for a spin in his spaceship. He was biting his lip from keeping the laughter at bay as they strode into the hospital. For a criminal Jack wasn't all too good at reading people.

Of course his mirth left as soon as a gas mask epidemic seemed to have broke out in the hospital. Jack did his best to help, no doubt sensing his sale leaving if these creatures took over. The Doctor of course told him off for meddling with a gun, the peaceful approach landing them trapped in a room with no exits to be found.

'Good to see you caught up,' the Doctor said, Ianto biting back the fact that he had been left- again. Catching up meant actually knowing where the Doctor was going. As far as Ianto was concerned he'd been abandoned.

Nevertheless they had more important things to worry about. Like the monsters on the other side of the door. Also, 'Jack knows where the ship is. The one that landed.'

'First name terms Ianto?' the Doctor berated, Ianto holding back rolling his eyes by the fact the Doctor was more than pleased with these turn of events. It wasn't like he was being mean anyway, Ianto had long since learned to read into the subtext of this mans words.

'He knows where it is. He was going to sell it to me.'

'For a reasonable price,' Jack butted in, looking like business was back on track, his shoulders were squared and hand held out to shake the Doctor's. 'Much better value than what others would sell it for. Especially when you see what's inside.'

'He's lying,' Ianto said, enjoying the frown that dropped over Jack's features. 'I think he's a con man. He has the moves of one anyway. Buttered me right up before making his offer. I don't think he even knows what it is he's selling.'

Jack looked distraught, the Doctor laughing in spite of their peril. 'Oh Ianto Jones. Have I ever told you how brilliant you are?'

'Not recently.'

The panic of being caught out had Jack spilling everything. Turned out Ianto was right in his guess. A con man from the 51st century who thought he'd found a good deal with the spaceship that had fell to Earth. Even more when he saw the Ianto since he wouldn't have to worry about moving the cargo to find a buyer. By the end of his speech Ianto was feeling just a little bad about having played Jack. Especially when he disappeared, bringing the two of them with him onto his ship.

He wasn't a bad guy in the end, Ianto saying as much to the Doctor when the whole fiasco of helping the poor child and his mother reunite was over with. Jack had helped them more than any heartless con man would have. He was risking his life right now to make sure the Chula ship really did explode like history said.

'Honestly,' The Doctor sighed, 'One whiff of 51st century pheromones and you go all starry eyed.'

'I'm just saying, he could have left us for dead but he didn't. He's not a villain, just a man who's trying to find a way through life. I get it.'

He thought the Doctor got it too when he skipped over to the TARDIS' doors, telling Jack to hurry it up before they left him for good.

'He's your responsibility,' The Doctor warned him, bouncing over to his console to start up their next adventure.

'Fair enough.'

Things with Jack on board were, to say the least, interesting. He was smarter than Ianto, or just advanced enough that he seemed to know more. In any case Ianto started to feel much like he did with Adam on board, like he was a monkey in zoo being looked at by scientists. Sure, he could write his name and pick out the right colour, but he was still a monkey.

He often got lost in conversations, leaving the Doctor to indulge himself in Jack's futuristic understanding in favour of tidying up the TARDIS. He was pretty sure the TARDIS sometimes just made new rooms for Ianto to clean, probably sensing, as she sometimes did, that he just needed something to do sometimes.

Time seemed to pass like a lifetime and an instant at the same time. He could have spent hours tidying up this new room he found, sorting out the alien artefacts into piles and figuring out which ones did which, or it could have been seconds. By the end of it he had Jack poking his head in saying they had landed.

The bottom fell out of his stomach when they landed in familiar London. Not old London where bombs fell and a handsome stranger was waiting in the sky, not new London where there were minute changes. No, this was Ianto's London, he could tell because as soon as he stepped out a newspaper hit his ankle with the date on top.

The Doctor didn't look too upset with him, but then it was hard to tell sometimes. He took a deep breath of London's air, the tension breaking when a grin beamed onto his face and turned to the two of them. 'Right, won't be long. Remember, Jack is your responsibility Ianto. He gets in trouble, you get him out.'

He wasn't being left just yet. 'Sure.'

The Doctor went off with a skip in his step, no doubt to find some kind of trouble to get in to. Jack on the other hand looked like he had nowhere to be. He'd changed out of his military uniform, sometime during the flight here he'd been exploring and found some clothes that would pass for decent in the 21st century. The jeans fit him nicely but the shirt, 'Is that mine?'

Jack shrugged neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Instead he took Ianto's arm and declared him give him a tour of this new century.

'I've been to the 31st, 19th, 16th, 45th and early 20th century. You'd be surprised how much humanity has changed in just a few hundred years,' Ianto had an inkling, having seen some of those centuries himself. 'But the 21st, never really had an interest to visit. Apparently this is where the human race first makes contact with aliens, which, I guess is interesting. But if you ask me things only get fun in the 23rd. So many humanoids so little time.'

'Really?' So it only took the human race two hundred years before they decided to start mating like rabbits with their new intergalactic friends.

'Really.'

They toured off to the high street, Ianto trying to remember the layout of London to make this a somewhat interesting trip. He was always good at history, but when Jack was looking for modern interesting stories instead of something he'd probably seen in real life Ianto was having a little bit of difficulty. They ended up buying a tourist map, Ianto letting Jack take over when it seemed he knew more than Ianto about this place.

'If we were in Wales things would be different,' Ianto said when he ran out of things to say about the London Eye and Jack took over again.

'Wales, that's in a different part right?' He looked so genuinely confused Ianto asked what he actually knew about England. 'Well, by the time I'm born England is just part of the Torchwood Empire. We learn about it as where it all began, but there's so little actually remembered that those who live on Earth don't really distinguish the different parts anymore. It's not even called England anymore.'

'What's it called?'

'Don't know,' Jack shrugged. 'The human race is kind of scattered around. I was born on a different planet.'

'So, you're kind of an alien,' Ianto said. 'That's kind of cool.'

'Yeah?'

He didn't fall into the trap, knowing that if he agreed Jack had something ready about other parts of him that were cool as well. Ianto veered them very much off that path and down to Downing Street imparting their little adventure with the Slitheens as good enough to be included in that part of the tour. Jack was excited beyond belief at it, interrogating Ianto until he told all about the first alien encounter the 21st century saw.

'And to think if I'd met you sooner I could've seen it too.'

Things picked up after that. They got chips, Jack lamenting the quality of sweets they got afterwards, which Ianto made up for in a good old muffin.

'I tell you, things like this are a luxury in the future.'

Ianto bet they were. He remembered the end of the world, where the aliens there didn't know that Britney Spears' 'Toxic' was anything but a classical ballad. He wondered what else was a luxury, spending the rest of the afternoon asking Jack if he knew what this or that was. The things he didn't know were enough to fill a book, Jack explaining that while he was good at assimilating, he always felt out of place when he got to a different timeline.

'In a good way,' he assured. 'If it wasn't I don't know how I could have survived without toilet paper in the 16th century.'

It ended up as a good day. Or would have had they not taken a wrong turn. Ianto recognized the man at the other end of the street before he shouted his name. He was one of the sellers he would sometimes go to if he stole something he could get for money- usually that only happened when he was desperate for something to eat. The man at the other end of the street had been one of the sellers he definitely didn't want to see again. Not only would he look down his nose at Ianto the only two times he went to him, but the last time he actually tried to proposition him, threatening him at the last minute when Ianto looked to be about to do a runner. He'd just been thankful the police had shown up when they did, the distraction was enough to escape the knife and make a run for it, but that face would stay with him. It looked like Ianto had made an impression too.

'Don't ask questions, just run,' he said, grabbing Jack's arm and hoping they could find the TARDIS before they ended up dead in an alley.

Jack, thankfully, recognized trouble when he saw it, the two of them running through streets and into the nearest crowded shop they could find. It was a clothes shop, Ianto getting a strange sense of de-javu about trouble and shops before he found himself pushed into a changing room, Jack giving the woman manning it some lie about a crazy ex. She understood, going off to find her manager and in the meantime telling them they could hide.

'She said she'd come get us when it's safe,' Jack said, pushing into the small stall, those pheromones hitting Ianto full in the face. 'Looks like I'm not the only one with a shady past.'

'Never said you were.' God that shirt looked better on Jack than Ianto. It was tight enough to pull across his chest, hints of his nipples bumping up the more Ianto admired. 'Thanks for not asking.' He didn't want to think what would have happened if the guy had caught up. Ianto could run, but fighting he wasn't so good at. He thought that was part of the reason the Doctor kept him around. He wasn't so good with his hands and therefore always sought out a better solution, sometimes even pulling the Doctor from the brink.

'That's fine.' The silence stretched, Ianto wondering if the guy was waiting just outside the shop. While they could boot him out of the premise's they could do nothing about him waiting outside. Not unless he had actually assaulted Ianto and then it would be in the police's hands, something Ianto had never been comfortable with. 'He's not really your crazy ex is he?'

'What?' God he needed air, the more time he spent with Jack in a confined space the more he started drifting on to other means. Like whether those pheromones got stronger if he was sweating, or aroused. He shook his head trying to clear it. 'No. Not an ex. Just some guy who almost got in trouble because of me.'

'Must have been some trouble.'

Ianto shrugged, almost laughing at the fact that while he'd said no questions Jack had a way of speaking that almost didn't need them. He found himself answering anyway, it didn't matter anymore. 'You know how it goes, I tried to sell him something, he tried to rape me, police show up and I make a runner.'

'Oh.' Judging from Jack's reaction he was expecting Ianto to have just nudged him the wrong way. The honest shock and little admiration had Ianto wishing more than ever they were outside. He couldn't handle this for much longer. All this attention was messing with him.

They went back to silence, Ianto trying to ignore his instinct to just rub one off against Jack. It didn't help when he felt eyes back on him. He didn't look, he didn't want to know why he had Jack's attention again. He barely knew him, and if he did do something he didn't want to make things awkward. Especially since the Doctor was probably cooking up trouble somewhere. They didn't need to be fighting or avoiding looking at each other all because Ianto couldn't control himself around one man.

He was overjoyed when the curtain pulled back and the girl said the guy had wandered off. Still, she let them use the back exit just in case, and instead of continuing their tour the two of them navigated their way back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor was there when they got back, his feet kicked up on the console and watching something through one of his monitors. 'Good day?' he asked.

'Interesting,' Ianto said.

'Exciting,' Jack corrected, strolling to see what had the Doctor's attention. 'What've you got yourself into then?'

The Doctor cast an aghast look to Ianto, 'What have you been telling him?'

'We've just literally been in wartime London fighting off gas masked people and you're asking what I've been telling him? I didn't need to tell him anything.'

'Why else would I have signed up for this?' Jack grinned, getting the Doctor's attention again by tapping the screen.

Danger was all well and good when travelling with the Doctor, but Ianto preferred it when things were quiet. He wasn't like the other two who craved excitement and looked for trouble wherever they went. Ianto would rather just find a nice street, a hill, somewhere where he could just sit and watch this new world he was in. One of his secret favourites was when the Doctor stopped at a planet full of dinosaurs. Jack and the Doctor had ran off in search of a T-Rex, giving up on inviting Ianto along when he said he just wanted a nap. He said nap, that was the only way they would leave him alone. If he said he wanted time on his own the other two would find a way to either join him or herd him along on their adventure anyway.

He waited a whole hour before sneaking off from the TARDIS, leaving a note on the console in big letters not to leave him behind. It was like something out of Jurassic Park, the dangerous part anyway. There were dinosaurs here that could kill him, but the risk was worth it to see them.

The Doctor had warned them beforehand which ones to avoid, Ianto's memory being put to good use as he saw the day dinos scuttling around. He found a cliff overlooking a cavern of trees. There was a little stream trickling in, dinosaurs of all kinds hopping down for a drink. The thing that really caught his attention was the pterodactyl. It was beautiful. A shadow when he first knew about it, blocking the sun before flying down the cavern and using its small feet to hop over to the stream. Its wings were leathery, almost like a bats, its long beak snapping half heartedly at the smaller dinosaurs like at any moment it might decide to pick them off like an owl at hunt.

He laughed when it got into a little brawl with another pterodactyl, the two of them rolling around snapping at each other before turning away like they were in a huff. He felt like he could watch them for days and not get tired.

'Should have known you'd sneak off.'

He didn't bother pretending to be shocked. He'd heard the branches snapping under familiar boots way before the Doctor decided to speak.

'I just wanted some time alone. It's nice here.' He moved along slightly as the Doctor joined him in his little spot. 'Where's Jack?'

'Back at the TARDIS. He hit his head trying to climb into a stegosaurus nest.'

'Sounds like I missed a good story.'

The Doctor hummed, 'Probably. Still, I understand. There's a reason I like travelling with you Ianto. Jack's all about the fun and adventure. I usually look forward to it myself. It's not often that I remember to really look at where we are, call it time travelling arrogance if you want, but you... it's nice to know that one of us is taking it in.'

'It's so beautiful.'

They sat there until it was dark, the Doctor giving the excuse that Jack was probably throwing a fit in the TARDIS by now. Ianto could tell it was really because the more dangerous dinosaurs came out at night, and, for some reason, the Doctor was letting Ianto have his nice peaceful day untainted with danger.

Jack was indeed in a pout when they got back, an icepack to his head, he made Ianto nurse him while the Doctor started up the TARDIS again. The whole ride to their new land Ianto heard about the stegosaurus Jack had tried to fight off. It was nicer to listen to the vamped up story, Jack so excited about it all that Ianto didn't have the heart to tell him the Doctor had told him the rather less impressive tale about Jack just wanting a closer look that really happened.

'You're quite the hero,' Ianto complimented, grinning at the beam Jack sent his way.

'Yes, well.' Jack waved off whatever else he wanted to say, inching closer to Ianto on the bed. 'How was your day? You enjoy your alone time?'

'It wasn't about being alone.'

'You know if you find me annoying all you have to do-'

'I don't.' He tried his best to fight down the laughter. He'd thought he was the odd one out all this time, Jack and the Doctor seeming to be made for each other but, looking at Jack's face, he saw Jack felt the same. He was the newcomer, the outsider in this little group. He was the one that had been ditched when the excitement was over today, the Doctor and Ianto probably feeling like they had been gone for days in the timeless void that was the TARDIS. 'I don't find you annoying Jack. It's nice having someone else around.'

They travelled to another few planets. One famous, or would be famous, for its flora, the Doctor giving Jack and Ianto a crash course on botany. Of course trouble found them in the form of a carnivorous plant working for some kind of tree beings that didn't take too kindly to humans. Even Jack's charisma couldn't soften them down enough from outright killing them, so they soon found themselves back on the TARDIS the Doctor promising the next planet would be better. Ianto doubted that but admired the Doctor's optimism.

When they did eventually land back on Earth Ianto was actually confused for a moment as to why the outside looked familiar.

'We're in Cardiff,' he would recognise the Plass anywhere. He used to come up with his father sometimes whenever they were going to the Electrode. He thought it was a good idea for Ianto to see something new before going somewhere old. Nevertheless home was home. 'Why are we in Cardiff?'

'Pit stop,' The Doctor said, poking his own head out. 'Shouldn't take long. A few days should do it.'

'Okay.'

Jack came up from his nap, changed from the almost obscene short shorts he'd decided were appropriate for their last planet, despite that fact that the TARDIS always made sure they blended in with their environment. Instead he was in a white tank top and jeans, Ianto gladly escaping into Cardiff for a breath of fresh air to stop himself from looking at Jack's arms. He couldn't screw around with Jack. It would be bad for morale.

Unfortunately Jack's arms followed him out, stretching high over his head as he twisted off the last of his nap. 'So this is Cardiff. How exotic.'

'If you say so.'

'How long we here for Doc?'

'A few days.'

'Then we'd better make the most of it,' Jack said, grabbing Ianto's arm before he could even try to protest. 'Where to first Ianto?'

The Doctor looked like he was going to flit away like he usually did. But almost like a switch, that urge seemed to die in his eyes and he ended up taking Ianto's other arm.

He felt like Dorothy taking the Tin Man and Scarecrow around Oz. The Doctor tried being all smart about this or that he saw, but Ianto was the one who set the record straight, telling the Doctor that he didn't in fact know everything. Jack let them argue about this and that until Ianto started correcting the Doctor's pronunciation with his Welsh. After that Jack wouldn't let him so much as speak without saying something Welsh.

'God it's like porn,' Jack sighed, his face enraptured as Ianto finally got them settled on a bench with something decent to eat.

'It's definitely something,' The Doctor agreed. 'I always did like the fact there were languages within languages in Britain. So unique. It's a shame not everyone keeps it up.'

'If they did I don't think I'd ever leave this place.' Jack was being beyond obscene, although how he was achieving this with greasy chips was beyond Ianto. 'Say Bad Wolf again.' Ianto did. 'Sounds so much sexier in Welsh.'

'Yeah,' The Doctor didn't sound like he completely agreed with that. Although it could have just been the fact they'd been hearing the words Bad Wolf for the better half of Ianto's stay.

'Doctor?' He grabbed a newspaper, showing the Doctor the front page that had caught his eye. He recognized that face on the front.

The run around with the Slitheen started up again, Ianto getting pretty damn tired of being petrified whenever he saw someone associated with one of them. He didn't know who was human and who wasn't, and the fact it was in Cardiff had him less than forgiving. When she dared them all to look away he made sure to stare her out. She'd almost destroyed London and now she was in Cardiff. His bloody family was here.

'I'll help Jack rig it up,' Ianto said when the Doctor asked if either of them wanted to accompany him and the Slitheen to dinner. Really he would have liked two meals in a day, but he didn't trust himself not to stab her with his fork, so it was probably best Jack was sending his best pouty face Ianto's way.

'Suit yourself. Don't wait up.'

Alone together Ianto helped Jack get sweaty beneath the TARDIS' floors, handing him this and that when he asked for it, but for the most part helping himself to watching Jack's arms work.

They worked in silence for the most part, Ianto too caught up in this current development that had the bottom of Jack's shirt riding up. He almost jumped out of his skin when the silence was broken with, 'You know Ianto, you're so hard to figure out.'

'How so?'

A grin was sent his way, telling him that he wasn't as subtle as he thought he was in his ogling. 'Well, for one thing I catch you doing things like this every now and then.'

'This?'

Jack huffed, pouting again like he couldn't believe Ianto was being so difficult. 'Looking at me like that. All interested. Then other times when I think maybe you'll do something about it it's like we don't even know each other. I can't tell what I'm working with here and it's driving me insane.'

There was silence again, nothing but the beeping of the TARDIS keeping both of them from thinking sound had been sucked out of the room- it wouldn't be the first time.

'I am,' Ianto decided at last. 'Interested. But,' he warned as Jack started leering, 'I don't think it's a good idea.'

'And why is that?' It turned out all Jack needed was surety in Ianto's affection and Ianto was getting the full Jack Harkness experience again. Smile, check, eyes fixed firmly on Ianto like there was no one else in the world, check, pheromones permeating, definitely check- and Ianto made a note of that last one, his brain agreeing that, yes, they did get stronger the more interested Jack got.

'Think about it. If we end up doing something and it doesn't end well, then what? One of us will screw up, and the Doctor will want at least one of us gone. I don't know about you but I don't want to give this up yet.'

From the looks of things Jack hadn't considered that, and why would he. Where he was from the Doctor had done a good job of explaining that things were more loose. People probably shagged and parted ways all the time, enough that when it happened it felt like just an ordinary day. Unfortunately, Ianto was definitely from the 21st century. Heartache, or at the very least, jealousy and envy if he saw Jack go with someone after him, were bound to crop up sooner rather than later. He knew that if he did give in it would be him that ended up ruining things. He would be the one to be petty or angry enough that the Doctor would see him as another disappointing ape that couldn't handle the consequences of travelling with him.

'I get it,' Jack said going back to his wires. He spared a huff that would have sounded like a chuckle in other circumstances saying, 'But, for the record, if either of us is getting booted off this ship, it's going to be me.'

'Hardly,' Ianto snorted. 'I mean, you're actually good in a fight. You're always up for adventure. The most I do around here is clean up. I'm not exactly on your level.'

'Oh please,' Jack scoffed, 'I get into trouble, the Doctor's two mishaps away from just leaving me to deal with it on my own. You're not useless you're cautious. You've proven you're good in a situation, I mean, that thing with the space whale, we were two seconds from being squished before you thought up that compromise. And before you say you're not on my level again, I've seen you pick apart this ship. You probably know more about alien technology than I do.'

Ianto couldn't help it, he just started laughing. It tumbled out of him like a wave crashing to the surf, something he had no control over and no effort to even try stopping. 'I can't believe we're arguing over the Doctor. It's not even the right argument either. We should both be pushing the other out the door.'

Before they knew it the pair of them were doubled over, giggling about that question that had always been in-between them, the one that, if it came to it, which one would go. By the time they decided they would at least get booted off the TARDIS for doing something spectacularly world ending, Jack had finished with the wires and the two of them had set up camp in the TARDIS' makeshift kitchen.

'I'm thinking orgy in one of the TARDIS' bedrooms,' Jack said, guessing at what would get him kicked out. 'Not just a small one either. We're talking at least 51st century standards of an orgy.'

'I don't know what that is.' Ianto thought about himself, 'Okay, I think I would get kicked out for... decaffing the Doctor's coffee.'

'He doesn't drink coffee,' Jack protested.

'He does,' Ianto insisted. 'I make it for him. Every time it's empty.'

'Really?' He wasn't surprised when Jack hopped up to get himself a cup. 'Gotta tell you I was more than surprised when I found out coffee was actually a thing. I mean, I'd heard of it, and we get varieties in the 51st century but, it's nothing like it is in this time period.' Ianto could just imagine Jack getting all excited about seeing an actual cup of coffee. Maybe harassing whoever he was with, probably the soldiers, and telling them to get him some. He watched now as Jack savoured the mouthful, nodding slightly before swallowing. 'That is a good cup of coffee. Remind me to kidnap you if I am forcefully moved out. We can go travelling together, you making excellent cups of coffee along the way.'

'Should have known,' Ianto sighed. 'One sip and I'm delegated from companion to coffee boy.'

'I'll delegate you to something else if you ask.'

Ianto felt his eyes rolling, things easing between them the longer they joked around. Of course this was the time that the TARDIS decided to try and destroy itself. No sooner had they ran back to the console to see what was wrong did the Doctor come charging in, the Slitheen still tethered to him but strangely followed by someone else too.

'Who's she?' Jack asked, avoiding a rain of sparks from the active TARDIS.

'Introductions later. Now what have you done.'

One near death experience later and Ianto was being introduced to Rose Tyler, a pretty blonde girl that had almost been mauled in the Slitheen's one of many escape attempts. She was pretty, and Ianto could almost mouth along, tone and all, the way Jack introduced himself, making sure to put the honorific 'Captain' on there too. What Ianto wasn't prepared for was the Doctor telling Jack to cut it out. Playfully, but he hadn't done it before. He'd been more than happy to let Jack flirt with whoever he liked but all of a sudden he was amending that. Jack noticed to, defending himself by saying he was just saying hello before retreating back to Ianto.

The two of them shared speculative looks, both of them not knowing just what this new arrival meant for them. She had already made an impression, and with nothing to tether her to home save a boyfriend that had just dumped her on a romantic weekend to Wales she was just perfect for the Doctor. What kind of impression would remain to be seen as the TARDIS took off again.

One paradox, three planets and four near escapes later, Ianto was hoping the next one would be another quiet planet. He half hoped he would be asked to pick out their next stop, the dinosaur world coming to mind. But, as had been the last three stops before, the Doctor was insisting that Rose pick the destination. Ianto would have accepted that he was indulging her because she was new but, he'd never done that with Jack. It was almost like the Doctor was showing off, and not just the kind he did when Ianto had first met him. This was showing off to do more than impress, it was to completely change her life and probably make it impossible for her to want to go back home.

He walked up to Jack, the man sitting by the TARDIS' doors watching the Doctor teach Rose how to fly the ship, and handed over a mug of his special brew, something Jack had taken a liking to. Making himself comfortable next to Jack, he watched the Doctor as well, his heart tugging as he saw just how happy he looked with Rose there.

'It's getting a bit crowded in here,' Ianto said.

Jack saved the mug from escaping his hands, the TARDIS giving a lurch as some control or another was pushed. 'How long do you think before one of us is asked to leave?'

They had both discussed it, more than once since the first time. The most recent had been just before Rose created that paradox, Jack and Ianto hiding themselves away in one of the TARDIS' bedrooms asking each other questions about the Doctor. One of the most important ones they had focused on was how many people the Doctor had known to travel with at once. Jack was an explorer himself, he knew the risks of having more than one person at his side. Two was pushing it really, and since Ianto had met him, alone and with no one else in sight, the two of them didn't have high hopes that they would be there for the long haul. One of them would be leaving. How, they didn't know. But it was going to happen sooner or later. 'Don't know,' he eventually said.

It turned out that 'Don't know,' was quite soon. They received some kind of signal, pulling them into the future, and before Ianto could so much as declare he wanted a 'nap' he was blacking out and waking up in the middle of a game show.

Of course it had to be bloody Countdown. He didn't even like this game when his mum had it on. The worst thing was that he didn't remember how he got there, and when he tried to ask what the hell was going on, his answer was to shut up and play the bloody game before they both died.

With that motivation in mind Ianto tried to grasp this new realm of Countdown hell he'd been trust in to. It turned out there was more than just the numbers and word rounds this time. There was some kind of transmitting round and something Ianto just didn't have a clue what it was but figured it had to do with futuristic communication.

All in all he did quite well in the regular parts of Countdown, even getting an eight letter word his mum would've been proud of. Long enough to stall anyway until Jack came storming in guns blazing and put the droids out of their misery.

'Thank God.' He didn't even wait for Jack to grab him, making for the hole in the wall where he could hear the Doctor yelling at someone. 'You have no idea how nightmarish that was. My mum used to get us to play it sometimes with her.'

Jack hummed, catching up with him and herding him over to the action, 'I guess I wouldn't like a childhood memory ruined either.'

'That's not what I meant.'

Bad Wolf. They were on a satellite called Bad Wolf, and all those times he'd heard it through their travels made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Something was going on here, and it looked like it had finally caught up with them.

A lot of shouting, arguing and Ianto holding Jack back from knocking people out had them on the elevator up to floor 500.

'You know, when this is all done we should go for a drink,' Jack suggested. 'Don't know about you but I think I just need an hour or so to black out.'

'Knowing our luck we'll end up pissing the bartender off so much he'll try to kill us,' Ianto said, the scene playing out in his mind because, before Jack had joined them a scenario just like that had actually happened. He could see the Doctor replaying it in his mind too, the small smile hiding at the corner of his mouth telling Ianto he remembered the morning after too, where they had woke to find the bartender suspended from the ceiling, the Doctor insisting it was Ianto that had done that through the night. He was quite happy to leave that bar behind.

'So it's always like this then?' Rose asked. 'Danger, and running?'

'Scared?' Jack challenged.

Rose puffed up, the rigidity of her shoulders belying the fact she said, 'As if.'

Ianto didn't blame her for being scared. He was. He knew Jack was as well no matter how much he smiled and pretended he wasn't. It turned out they had a right to be.

Daleks. Ianto thought he'd seen the last of them in Van Statten's museum, the Doctor reassuring him time and again when he came slumping into the console room after a failed attempt at sleeping that there were no more. He'd promised. Yet here they were, watching the Daleks not only survive but thrive. They had an emperor, more than an emperor, and Ianto couldn't help wondering if the one he'd seen, defeated and dying in that museum was capable of killing so many people in so many ways then what could this emperor Dalek do?

'I'll hold them off as long as possible,' Jack said, his gun at the ready, and for once the Doctor not giving him a lecture on not to use it. Things were beyond bad.

'The top six floors are shielded, they shouldn't be getting in any other way but the bottom up,' The Doctor started, rushing around and pulling things off other things.

'I can set up a barrier. Hopefully we'll destroy them before you even have to lift a finger.' Jack sounded optimistic, like this was any old enemy they were facing. But Ianto could hear the underlying words he didn't say. That the alternative to destroying them would be to make sure they made themselves die long enough to stall them for the Doctor.

'Good luck.' Goodbye hung between them all.

Jack heard it plain as day, dropping his gun and saying his goodbyes like a proper man. Ianto bit down the fear as Jack kissed Rose and the Doctor, the surety Jack had that he wasn't coming back from this. He stopped Jack before he could even try to kiss him, his mind made up. 'I'm coming with you.'

'Ianto,' He didn't know who was protesting, the Doctor or Jack, and he was rather miffed that they thought he needed to stay up there with the Doctor. He wasn't any good to either of them. He would get in the Doctor's way if he stayed, and he didn't think he could handle just listening to the war as it went on. For the first time in his life Ianto wanted to fight, he wanted to help Jack if it meant these things could be stopped with his death.

'I'm going. That's that.' He turned to the Doctor. 'It's been fun. I don't know what would have happened if you didn't-'

'Ianto,' the Doctor interrupted. 'You'll be fine.'

'Doubtful. But he is my responsibility,' He smiled over at Jack, remembering the promise he made to the Doctor, 'It's probably about time I actually followed through on that.'

He waved to Rose, neither of them particularly close since she preferred to be closer to the danger than take in the scenery with Ianto. He also didn't want to upset her further. She seemed to be in some kind of hopeful shock, as if thinking that the Doctor would pull out some miracle or another and say they were off in a few minutes. But it wasn't going to happen. Ianto had seen first hand that travelling, being near, the Doctor could be just as destructive as it was wonderful, and he was ready for whatever came next.

He picked up a gun, following Jack before his brain could do something stupid like tell him to stay.

They rode the elevator down to the first of the sealed floors, Jack taking full command as he ordered this batch of people here and there. Ianto kept close by, trying to figure out his gun before he got one of their own dead before the Daleks.

It didn't take long before they were taking cover behind a grate, Jack crouched in close as the pair of them peered through the metal bars to the single door their enemies would come through.

'It seems kind of stupid, looking back,' Ianto said, thinking about all the adventures they had. 'I tried to be practical about keeping you at a distance. All I can think about is how much I've been cockblocking myself, I could've been having it off all this time. Any other bloke in my place would've.'

He felt Jack chuckling, the puffs of air sliding against the back of his neck. 'Yeah. But that's what makes you Ianto. You take the long route while the others go straight to the source. We would have got there eventually.'

He wondered how long the Daleks were going to take, 'Could always go there now.'

'Are you propositioning me on the battlefield?'

He turned, taking in Jack's grinning face, the same one that had greeted him when he landed in his arms their first meeting. It was pure delight, the one that came when something truly surprised him, that had him amazed even after all he'd seen.

'Interested?' Ianto asked. 'I'm sure we could toss one off before these metal aliens get up here.'

Another laugh, and then Ianto was being kissed within an inch of his life. One of Jack's hands cupped his cheek, the other keeping Ianto's gun from killing the pair of them. It was sweet, soft, and everything Ianto had thought kissing Jack would be like. Then it was over, Jack pulling back and hoisting his gun up.

'As much as I would love to sneak off for one last dance I don't think we have time.' Sure enough a clang on the door had them focusing their attention back on the battle. 'But, you just say the word when this is done and I'll have you anywhere you like Jones Ianto Jones.'

'Yes sir.'

The Daleks were just as terrifying as Ianto remembered. They cut down the first wave of fighters faster than Ianto could think. He ended up grabbing Jack and moving up a floor, telling him the first one was lost.

'We never had a chance with just guns,' he said, his brain moving fast on Dalek makeup and how to defeat them.

They ended up booby-trapping the second floor, Ianto flooding the floor from the toilets conveniently found on every floor. A few hundred broken wires and he was pushing Jack up the next floor, the two of them, with the small group they'd managed to save, listening to a few of the Daleks frying in the hundred volts.

'That won't stall them for long. They can fly, somehow. No doubt they're already moving over the wires.'

They couldn't try the wires again. Daleks were smart, they were probably staying airborne for a while after that little trick. So Ianto had the others thinking up ways to block their sight, if they blinded them they might have a better shot at taking out the main sensor. Thankfully this satellite was falling apart and Jack was brilliant. Between the two of them they managed to figure out a way to steam up the corridors, leaving some volunteers behind to try their best with their guns as they went up the next floor.

Ianto pulled out all the tricks he knew until he was standing side by side with the small group of four they had left. This was the last floor before they reached the Doctor. They'd stalled all they could, but Ianto had ran out of ideas leaving Jack to set up one last wall of resistance, telling everyone to make it a good death.

'We could have been great,' Ianto said, Jack's hand firmly in his own.

'We were.'

He let Jack take him to the side, the few seconds between the Dalek's coming up to dying the two of them spent together. Not kissing, somehow that seemed pointless. Ianto just wanted to look, to remember Jack before everything went dark. He wasn't the only one.

Or he thought he wasn't. He let Jack take his face in his hands, revelled in those firm hands as they moved him for a better look. Until they were gone and Jack was saying he was sorry, the lift going up and closing firmly on one sad smile from Captain Jack Harkness.

Fighting against the lift was pointless. No matter how much he wanted to throw a tantrum, his brain told him by the time he got back down there nothing would be different. Jack would be dead with or without him there, there was nothing he could do to change that. What he could do was make sure the Doctor was ready. So he did.

'They're coming,' Ianto called, running to catch up and just be useful for a change. 'We tried everything but they're coming.'

The Doctor nodded, pulling Ianto in for a hug, something he'd never actually thought he'd get from this man. 'You did well,' almost had him welling up, his brain arguing that he didn't do well enough.

He pushed those thoughts aside however, concentrating on the here and now. 'Tell me what to do.'

The Doctor had built a Delta wave, something that, ordinarily, Ianto would have been against. But here, now, with these creatures that caused so much pain, he understood why sometimes sacrifices had to be made. Still, when the Doctor, for all his words, refused to push it, Ianto couldn't help feel some of his humanity coming back. It wasn't right. No decision was right, but at least they would die knowing they could have destroyed millions of people but didn't.

Then Rose came.

'Ianto,' the Doctor called, doing his best to carry Rose over to the TARDIS.

He didn't feel right. Rose had just destroyed the Daleks like they were nothing. She had been a god with all this power and now it was gone. They were going, just like that. Ianto didn't know why but it didn't feel right, and he knew it had something to do with the body he was trying not to think about a floor down.

'Ianto,' the Doctor called again, running out to take him by the elbow. 'There's nothing you can do. I'm sorry but we need to leave.'

'Okay.'

He thought later, sitting in his bedroom in the TARDIS, that they probably could have taken Jack and buried him somewhere. Maybe on his home planet, but then Ianto didn't know where that was since Jack had never said. Besides, the Doctor didn't do funerals, and Ianto didn't think he could stomach seeing Jack so lifeless. The Daleks might have done more than merely electrocuted him. They might have blown parts of him off, decimated Jack beyond recognition. The Doctor was doing him a kindness for not letting his memory of Jack be marred by such a thing.

'Ianto!' screeched its way to his bedroom, Ianto taking off to the main console before it had stopped echoing.

Rose was conscious, panicking and looking at a man that had definitely not been on the TARDIS before.

'Who the hell is this?' The strange thing was Ianto felt like he knew him, there was something about his eyes. Of course the clothes he was wearing helped put the final pieces of the puzzle together. 'Doctor?'

'Ianto good to see you,' the new Doctor grinned. 'Very good to see you. Wow, these new eyes are interesting. Either that or this new brain is noticing new things.'

Ianto didn't know what to do. The Doctor, it felt like he had died to. In the coming hours Ianto would be lost in some spiral of grief. There was danger, there was always danger, but when it was all over and Ianto was suffering through Rose's mother making some inane comment about spending Christmas with family, he let the thoughts that had been weighing on him since he'd seen this new Doctor fall on him. He was different than he was before. He was lighter somehow, more animated than he had been but Ianto couldn't get past the fact he was looking at a different person.

The Doctor didn't even give a moments pause, as soon as boxing day came he shuffled them both back in the TARDIS and heralded them off on another adventure.

Ianto didn't feel like he had with the other Doctor, he didn't feel safe. This new one, he didn't know. He found himself hiding in the TARDIS more often than not. Usually it was because of the Doctor, but more often than not it was the way the Doctor completely forgot Jack existed. Ianto brought him up a few times, Rose saying she didn't really know him all that well so she couldn't say anything. The Doctor on the other hand, the man who had led them on all these adventures just changed the subject. Ianto would think it was grief had this new Doctor not been easier to read than the last. There was something else going on, so for the time being Jack's memory rested solely with Ianto.

'You coming?' Rose asked, poking her head in his room. 'The Doctor says we're going to some kind of futuristic planet, or something. Sounds like a laugh.'

'Tell him he doesn't have a choice,' drifted through, Rose grinning back at the Doctor as he passed.

'Guess I don't have a choice.'

'Where are we?' Rose asked when they got out. There were fields of green stretching all around them, the Doctor striding comfortably over the alien grass to spread himself on the new ground.

'New New York.'

They were here to see an old friend, the psychic paper giving them a clear invitation, with Ianto surprised to see his name being insisted upon at the end.

'Couldn't exactly deny a request,' the Doctor said, pocketing the paper and showing off his knowledge of the hospital they were going to.

There were cats, actual cats with whiskers and claws, running the hospital. Ianto spared half a thought to his sister when they were growing up, adamant as she was that sooner or later the cats that practically ran their neighbourhood were one day going to rise up like in 'Planet of the Apes'. She might not have been far off. Especially if they were in charge of the health care system. Everyone knew that if you controlled the drugs you controlled the people.

He caught up with the Doctor just before the door to the lift closed, the two of them sparing a look at Rose's disappearing hoodie before they took off.

The lift jolted, the Doctor telling him to brace himself for decontamination. Ianto barely heard him, the motion of the lift making him ill. The last time he'd been in one of these, barely a few trips ago, he'd said goodbye to Jack. He thought he was going to die. He could almost see the Daleks approaching, waiting for the lift to stop and come back down or open up upon them already being ahead.

'Okay,' he heard, the Doctor appearing again in his vision. Only it wasn't the Doctor, his brain was telling him it was someone else, someone wearing his personality. 'Ianto breathe. Everything's fine.' Ianto's hair was wet, the Doctor's hair was wet, was that blood, was he bleeding or was it just water? He couldn't tell, he couldn't breathe. 'Ianto look at me. You're okay. Everything's fin-' the man in front of him pulled a face as a gust of air battered them both.

They must have made it off the lift, and with that thought Ianto scrambled for the door, just glad that it opened before he could try again. The floor was a blessing beneath his knees, the Doctor reappearing in his vision and helping him up. 'Just keep breathing Ianto. Try not to look too ill though, I don't think seeing cats in your state will help much.' That got a laugh out of him, and before he knew it the room wasn't swimming anymore. 'There we are. How about you take the stairs next time?' He nodded, breathing slightly easier despite the pain in his chest.

They waited until Ianto was really alright before going in search of their patient. 'Rose has probably just got lost. We'll give her ten minutes before panicking.'

They made their way through familiar and foreign aliens, the Doctor marvelling at the ingenuity of this hospital. From the way he was frowning it seemed there wasn't just miracle cures in those bags. Ianto could feel trouble brewing.

Their contact turned out to be a familiar face, Ianto placing him as the alien from their first adventure together. The Face of Boe had been their host for the end of the world party, and he'd went out of his way to say hello to Ianto too. Very nice of him actually considering Ianto was nothing more than the Doctor's thought of 'rent boy' for the event.

'Hello old friend,' the Doctor greeted, the Face of Boe sleeping peacefully in his tank in response. 'What's wrong with him?'

'He's dying,' the nurse said, looking sad as she said it. He must have been here long if the nurses were starting to feel for him. 'He's sleeping now. I'll come get you when he wakes up.'

The Doctor nodded, going off to explore the rest of the ward as his new regenerations legs got restless. Ianto didn't much fancy running around just yet. He needed a sit down after that fiasco with the lift, and hoped the Face of Boe wouldn't mind so much if he set up camp next to him.

It was just under an hour when Rose turned up, her stride off as she walked and something wrong with her jacket. She looked nothing like herself despite it definitely being her, but the Doctor took off with her before Ianto could think about piping up. He shouldn't worry anyway, the Doctor would sort out whatever problem was going on. So Ianto focused on the Face of Boe, wondering what something so old could want with the Doctor and his companions.

'Just so you know,' Ianto said after a while, boredom making him talk. 'Britney Spears Toxic is not an old Earth ballad. Whoever says otherwise is probably deluded.' The face still slept, peaceful in his tank and despite being a complete stranger all too familiar at the same time. It wasn't long before he was retelling tales about his adventures, his voice filling the empty air just so he wouldn't be tempted to draw on the Face of Boe's tank. 'His name was... Jack. He was brave, and, died. I wish we'd buried him, or I didn't let him make me leave like the coward I am. Some part of me knew he would pull a stunt like that. He's sneaky, he used to be a conman for crying out loud, and some part of me knew he would use his old tricks so he could be the hero. Stupid hero.' He felt his eyes welling up, scrubbing at them harshly with the back of his hand so they wouldn't fall. He wasn't going to cry in a hospital. 'Still, don't know why I'm so upset. I didn't even know him all that well. Didn't even know his real name. But then-' he sighed, switching to another, more recent, story about the Doctor saving Christmas.

By the time the chaos started he'd probably earned the right to never be invited to the Face of Boe's party again. The only thing that kept Jack off his mind was thinking about that end of the world party, Ianto trying to come up with compliments amidst the danger to say but mostly just complaining about how Earth's history had been distorted over the years. If Cassandra was here he was sure he would have been slapped across the face with her flesh for his insults. She had been so sure she was the expert on humans she had completely missed the part where they no longer lived on earth.

She had reminded him a bit of the well to do kids that went to the good secondary. It wasn't that far away from his own, and the kids were actually pretty nice. But the parents, those were the people who thought it best their kids and the people Ianto hung around with stayed as far away from each other as possible. His view on them only decreased when Rhiannon managed to bag herself an alright boyfriend from that school. Although, it only lasted two weeks, the mother making it clear that Rhiannon would never fit in with the life she had planned for her kids. Ianto had been forced to listen to his sister all night as she cried over the unfairness of it all, and couldn't actually believe when he saw that thing calling itself human held the same beliefs as those ignorant people back in his own time. Why should it have been them that got so powerful. it just wasn't fair.

The screaming started just as the Doctor ran in shouting to barricade the door. 'Ianto with me, I need your expertise.'

He fought back an eye roll and scampered over to the Doctor, not expecting the slap from Rose when he got there.

'What was that for?' he hissed, holding his red cheek.

'You know what,' Rose snapped back, her voice, the way she held herself and definitely the three missing buttons on her shirt telling Ianto there was definitely something wrong.

He appealed to the Doctor, the man making a wild hand gesture before simply putting, 'Cassandra.' Which, Ianto supposed, said it all really. 'Now, you know about mechanics, which I know because you're not as sneaky in the TARDIS as you think you are. So, I need you to help me find a way to seal off this ward. There's a control panel over there, and a fire escape over there. See if you can barricade one and override the other.'

'What are you going to do?'

A hastily made device and one freefall later the Doctor was telling Ianto they were in position, hoping he was still alive to hear that bit of good news. This time he really did roll his eyes, the barricade of hospital beds and computer virus he remembered from one of the TARDIS' backlogs making sure that the people in this ward were safe.

With nothing left to do he had everyone move to the back of the ward, wondering what on earth was going on down with the Doctor to have Rose, or Cassandra, making that horrible screeching sound.

He sank back to his spot, surprised when the Face of Boe stared back at him. 'You're awake,' he said stupidly, the face smiling back at him in response.

'Sounds like something fun's going on,' came to Ianto's mind.

'Just trouble, as usual. How are you sir?'

If the Face of Boe could beam Ianto thought he would be doing so now, happiness seeming to radiate off him. 'Better now for seeing you.'

The screams downstairs died off, Rose shutting up- finally. The banging coming from the door stopped too, Ianto hazarding a look by hacking into the CCTV, another thing he'd learnt from too long many times being ditched by the Doctor, and seeing the people on the other side drift down to the lower levels. Ianto, he had to stop for a moment when he'd seen them. He hadn't known what they were up against, too caught up in the waiting room, so he hadn't seen the people chasing the Doctor. Now he had, well, if he was against the healthcare system before he downright feared it now. He would be having nightmares about these plague people for a while.

'Ianto?' called in his head, Ianto finally shutting off the CCTV to return to the Face of Boe. He didn't look too bad now. In fact, he looked as energetic as he had on their first meeting, which wasn't much but it was more than before.

'Sorry. The Doctor shouldn't be long now. It looks like the worst is over.'

'That's fine, I was enjoying listening to you talk.'

Something told him the Face of Boe wasn't just talking about the pleasantries they shared before. The sneaky thing had probably been awake for a while now, Ianto thinking back on the tales he had been telling and hoping it wasn't too bad.

He was overjoyed when the Doctor came banging on the door, telling everyone, namely Ianto, that it was safe to go out. Quarantine was lifted after an hour, the police arresting all the cat doctors in the building and just cementing it in Ianto's mind that he wasn't going to a hospital anytime soon. There was some incident with Cassandra Ianto didn't know and didn't care to know if it meant he was going to get slapped again, so he took Rose back to the ward, the two of them taking the long way up even when the lifts were back online.

The Face of Boe perked up when he saw them, saying something silently to Rose that had her sending a smirk over at Ianto.

'This is the Face of Boe,' Ianto introduced. 'We met him at the end of the world.'

'Seriously?'

Ianto nodded.

The Doctor came back sombre, but only long enough for Ianto to catch him before he shook himself off and bounded over to them. That was the problem with this Doctor, he just bounced back. He always bounced back. It was frustrating, but Ianto didn't know why. Being able to cope with something like this is probably a good survival instinct, a way to move past something that would make someone else crumble and focus on the next big thing. But Ianto just didn't like it. It was probably just his own issues mixing in with this new change in the Doctor. In any case he tried to put it to the back of his mind again as the Doctor tried to pry the reason they were called to New New York by the Face of Boe.

Which they didn't get. Besides being cryptic as hell, he disappeared before any other persuasive techniques could be used, leaving all three of them staring at the spot he used to be.

'Well, I guess that's that then,' Ianto said.

The three of them went back to the TARDIS speculating on what this big secret the Face of Boe had to bestow. The Doctor thought it was something earth shattering, maybe the meaning of existence altogether. Rose thought it was something to do with them, maybe another Bad Wolf warning she'd scattered through time. Ianto, well, he didn't know, but whatever it was he knew it was important somehow, otherwise he wouldn't have been so secretive.

'Right, lets get going.'

Werewolves, evil schoolteachers, cybermen that sent Ianto hiding in his room again for the next few stops and the Olympics almost being cancelled later they ended up on a very familiar planet.

'Rose and I are going to look for some nests. Want to come?'

They were on the planet with the dinosaurs again, Ianto catching a pterodactyl flying overheard almost as soon as he followed Rose and the Doctor out.

He motioned towards it, 'I think I'm going to...'

'Be back before dark,' the Doctor warned, Rose dragging him off to look at the dinosaurs.

Ianto found they were parked in the same place they had been last time they were here. It was hard for Ianto not to think about Jack when he was here. He'd been trying hard not to ever since their journey to New New York. He'd made a promise that he wasn't going to jeopardise his position on the TARDIS by falling apart. So he'd put on a brave face, being as helpful as he could be and so far it had been working. Well, almost working, the thing with the cybermen hit him hard, the Doctor telling him when he asked just what had become of Ianto's family while they were there. They had been converted, every single one of them. Even Mica and David. He'd been tormented with the thought of running into them in his dreams, of killing a cyberman only to realise he'd just killed his sister. It made him want to see them, just a glimpse, after all, just because he wasn't with them didn't mean he didn't care.

But it looked that thoughts of Jack weren't going to be kept at bay right now. He found the patch overlooking the watering hole. The pterodactyls were there, flying and playing around and reminding Ianto of the Doctor telling him how Jack had been trying to sneak into a nest himself when they were here last.

The sun was high in the sky when he heard familiar steps, and the whole day was repeating itself.

'Hello Doctor,' he greeted before those steps even began to get close.

'I can never sneak up on you,' The Doctor huffed, sliding down next to him. 'Do you know how unfair that is? You always get the jump on me.'

He spared an eye roll, noticing that, yes, just like the last time, the Doctor was alone. He suspected he'd sent Rose back to the TARDIS, and the feeling that this was going to be a heart to heart he probably didn't want to have.

Sure enough, 'Are you happy Ianto?'

Another new quirk about this Doctor was that he was easy to read, far too easy. He was concerned for Ianto, no doubt picking up things hadn't been the same since the Daleks. Ianto considered lying to the Doctor, but the Doctor had made an effort here, it wasn't fair for him to keep everything quiet all of the time in return.

'I'm on another planet. It's hard to be upset when you're on another planet. But, I sometimes wonder what my life would've been like if I'd stayed home. I'm, what, 20 something now?'

'Give or take,' the Doctor agreed. 'Although you're obviously younger than you are when we land. Probably twenty one, maybe twenty two. So that would be uni and probably a job by now. Sounds, fun.'

He stifled a snort, remembering the Doctor's horror when he thought the TARDIS was gone on that spacecraft before the black hole. He'd been distraught at the idea of normality, his life all about running and new. Uni and a job was the worst thing in the world to the Doctor, but Ianto, again, appreciated the effort.

'I like travelling with you.'

'Good,' The Doctor said. 'Very good.' They lapsed into silence, watching the pterodactyls below for a while. 'So, nothing's wrong then? You're not, I don't know, upset? It's just Rose thought you might be.'

'You can tell Rose I'm fine. Everything's okay.'

He heard a sigh, that young face next to him looking like he was bracing for a punch in the face. 'I know you're angry at me about Jack. I miss him too you know.'

'Do you?' It wasn't said meanly, Ianto was actually wondering if the Doctor did more than just remember someone who came for a trip or two.

'Of course. Jack was fun, and he was definitely flirting with me now that I think about it.' They spared a laugh, both of them lost in just Jack as a whole. His life and energy that had both of them happy to have him along. 'But there was nothing we could do Ianto.'

'I know, it was never about that.'

The Doctor nodded as if something had just clicked in his head. 'I'm still me. Just because I have a new face it doesn't mean I'm not who I was. I still remember and think how he did. All that's changed is a new body and a new perspective.'

He thought back to their adventures. The Doctor wasn't wrong, he was still that wildly enigmatic man that had picked him up in a closed down shop. He still tried to save people, even the aliens they fought now, but that had more to do with Rose's good heart than any drastic change in personality. He was still smart beyond reason, but more kind in his dismissal and delivery when Rose or Ianto didn't catch up with his stream of consciousness. He was still the man who abhorred guns as they reminded him too much of what had happened to his people, and he was still the man who kept Ianto around even if he brought nothing more to the team than his organisation.

'I'm starting to get that.'

'Good.' A pterodactyl nudged a younger one onto the earth, the long wings spreading out as the claws grappled at the older. 'They really are something.' He pointed to the bushes they were standing next to,' See those, they grow something like cocoa beans. Love the stuff, it's why they set up their nests here.'

Something occurred to Ianto when it started to grow dark- apart from the interesting titbit about dinos being addicted to chocolate. Watching the Doctor next to him he started wondering about regeneration. He'd said he was the same man and that it was just his appearance that had changed so, 'Does that mean you have control over your regenerations? I mean, you grew your hand back on Christmas.'

The Doctor scoffed, 'If only. If I did have control, I'd be ginger. Do you know how long I've been waiting for that to happen?'

For some reason Ianto didn't wholly believe him, but he said, 'Okay,' anyway. Still, some part of him couldn't help but chime, 'It's just, one moment Rose is saying how much older you look to her. Actually, a lot of people are, and the next you're, well, she can't take her eyes off you. If you ask me I think Time Lords have at least a little say about what they're going to regenerate into.'

'Well it's a good job you're not being asked isn't it Ianto.' They both laughed, Ianto more than sure now that the Doctor had swayed his genes this way to impress Rose.

'It's fine, I won't say anything.'

Which he didn't. When they got back to the TARDIS he let Rose pick where they wanted to go next and didn't say a word about how the Doctor was practically preening under her attention.

They went to three more planets before Rose said she needed to go home and check on her mother. With washing needing done, and Rose adamant that Ianto not do it after the last time had ended up with some of her underwear mixed in with the Doctor's shirts, they were back on Jackie Tyler's doorstep in no time.

'I'm going to go out,' Ianto said, hanging in the doorway. He didn't much fancy being so domestic right about now, this block of flats reminding him of how often he spent sleeping in their doorways or staircases. The Doctor waved him off amongst fighting off Jackie Tyler, Rose giving the usual be back at this time, while he was occupied.

He ended up stealing someone's phone. Well, borrowed, but the guy had walked off before Ianto could so much as put it back. He used it to check up on his family. His sister was still in her house, the one she had just bought before Ianto went to London. She was still married to that moron Johnny, but he supposed, if they had made it work that long he couldn't be all bad. The years Mica and David were in at school threw him for a loop. He hadn't realised how grown up they were. Last he'd seen them they had barely been able to walk never mind read and write. He'd been away so long.

It was around the time he was trying to ditch the phone that he saw the ghosts. One just popped up right next to him, scaring him out of his skin and sending him scampering back to Jackie Tyler's flat with words of danger on his lips. The Doctor was already hard at work when he got there, sifting through the channels to try and make sense of it all.

'This is horrible,' Ianto said when Jackie explained about the ghost shifts. In his life quite a few people had died, and some of them he had been glad they could no longer get him. Now it seemed that was all moot. If the dead really were rising he would have to be on his guard, which meant he was staying as far away from Cardiff as possible.

'Disgusting,' the Doctor agreed, ignoring the cold look Jackie sent their way. 'and why do ghosts have shifts? Something doesn't seem right.'

Which led them to ghostbusting, the Doctor grinning like a loony as he set up some kind of device.

'You don't really think it's the dead do you?' Ianto asked, needing some reassurance that this wasn't bordering on ghosts again. Once had been enough.

'Nah,' he tinkered with another line of wire, his screwdriver working overtime to connect it up to the TARDIS properly. 'Why? Someone you're avoiding?'

'My father, my uncle, my grandparents, Jack, take your pick. They all have some kind of grievance with me. I don't think I could stomach a visit if it really is them.'

The screwdriver stopped, the Doctor shouting some instructions to Rose before standing next to Ianto to wait. 'It's not ghosts. I don't know what it is but it's not the dead. And Jack wouldn't have a grievance with you Ianto.'

The ghost shift started with Ianto feeling slightly better about what they were facing. With their captured 'ghost' they learnt about Torchwood, which led Ianto to trying to avoid being shot in the head when they landed in the middle of Canary Wharf. He should have known they had his name on file if they knew everything about the Doctor, but still some part of him wished he was the one being swapped for Jackie as they were led off through the Torchwood building.

The alien tech in this place was amazing. Ianto recognized things he remembered from ships they visited or planets they'd landed on, his mind recalling every use they had. It also rebuked at the way Torchwood was weaponizing them. Even an alien hairdryer they had modified for warfare, making Ianto wonder if it was just humanity in general that always sought to make war before peace.

They were taken to the lifts, Yvonne making some more talk about if it's alien it's ours, when Ianto felt a soft push at his chest. 'No, no, no, he doesn't come in here,' the Doctor said, 'Trust me, he doesn't do well in lifts.'

'Well he's going to have to,' Yvonne said, motioning to the guards behind him to push him in.

Thankfully the Doctor stood his ground, Ianto already beginning to feel sick by the thought of the swooping motion the lift brought. 'He'll be sick. He's done it before. Just take him up the stairs. That is if you want your shoes to remain pristine.'

The thought of her image being tainted in front of the Doctor had Yvonne relinquishing. Ianto was led away from the lifts, the Doctor making a subtle head nod that told him to snoop around for a while. He'd never been more happy that he couldn't go in lifts again than now. Travelling, it turned out that aliens and the future had just forgotten that stairs existed. It made for quite a few ruined suits, and Rose always opting to get the next one up if Ianto had no choice but to get in. He'd told himself more than once that it was over with, that the Daleks were gone, but every time he got in that lift all he saw was Jack's heroic smile being cut off, hear the sound of Daleks approaching and wonder if they were going to beat him to the Doctor. Well, he knew there were no Daleks this time, but he doubted men with guns were any better.

They had him up three flights of stairs before he managed to slip away. Doing that required probably one of the easiest tricks in the book, he was actually surprised they fell for it when he asked to go to the loo. A few slipped stalls, knocking someone out, stealing their suit and access card later Ianto held his head high and pretended he'd always worked for Torchwood, and surprisingly got away with it.

He guessed about ten minutes before the alarm would be sounded, he'd been quite persistent that he wasn't going to make it off the toilet in the foreseeable future, the wonders of PTSD and a pale pallor would do that for a person. Just enough time for him to make himself invisible amongst the computer banks.

The thing with big corporations was that there were so many people that, more often than not, people forgot who was working there. Ianto slipped easily into an empty computer stall, making an excuse his own was dead to fight off the questions and avoided detection when the guards came in to search.

Torchwood was interesting. They had files on almost everything that had come to Earth in the last four hundred years. Documents of aliens and alien artefacts, the Doctor saving the day and even first person accounts from the 1800's onwards were stored in the computer banks. Unfortunately, they had nothing on the ghosts. Eventually, Ianto just hacked into the CCTV, stole some headphones and listened in to what was happening as he looked over the mainframe for anything of use.

The alarm sounded when Rose was found, Ianto finding her in the research department before Yvonne could ask what was going on. The strange thing was she wasn't alone, and when Ianto placed the man next to her his blood went cold. Pete Tyler. Rose's father, the one they had met in the other world. Which meant, if the Doctor was talking about a rift, something pushing from one world to another it was probably from his. That didn't bode well, Ianto replaying the cyber attack in his mind as the whole building went insane.

The sphere. The void. Two of his worst nightmares coming to life as Daleks and Cybermen appeared in the same building. He thought he was hallucinating, cursing his brain for being so cruel before reasoning that not even his nightmares had been this creative. He ran for his life when the cybermen came to upgrade, hedging his chances scaling across the window ledge than being led to his death. He found a room already abandoned to climb into, the people inside already led for their upgrade, and shadowed the cybermen until he could get to the warehouse with the alien tech.

He stole a phone, texting Rose, the Doctor, anyone he could that he was with the TARDIS, that he could help. It turned out he didn't need to. The Doctor solved their problem from the highest floor of Torchwood, Ianto not needed at all. He ended up trying to help those being converted, sneaking into the lines and picking off one or two people before the cybermen found him. He'd managed get fourteen people out and hiding in the basement when the cybermen and Daleks were sucked into the void. Ianto had been grateful that he hadn't seen one in person, a Dalek that was, if he had he was sure he would have been catatonic.

The Doctor found him huddled on the floor of the TARDIS, joining him, the two of them just sitting watching the blinking lights of the console for a while.

'Rose… she's gone.'

They couldn't even get a goodbye right. The Doctor tried his best, and Ianto left him to it since he knew her best, but when he came retreating, broken, onto Ianto's bed he knew there were things that hadn't been said between them.

For once, probably the only time ever since the Doctor had regenerated, Ianto saw him stop. Just for a while. They lay there too caught up in what had happened, what might have been and what could have been until the thoughts threatened to consume them both. Only then did the Doctor sit up.

'I've been thinking Ianto, maybe it's time you went home.'

'You're kicking me out?' He'd thought about this day since he first came on board the TARDIS, going through scenario after scenario about how it would happen and his reaction to it. In most of them he'd fought for his place in the TARDIS, his imaginary Ianto listing everything he could do better. In reality he was too tired to do more than nod, gathering his feet under him and grabbing the scant few belongings he'd came on board with.

'Only for a while,' the Doctor amended. 'I think you should see your family. Live normally, if just for a few months. This life, I don't like loose ends.' As articulate as the Doctor could be at times, Rose had hit him hard, but Ianto got the gist of it. He didn't want Ianto to be looking back like Rose did at the people she'd left behind. That boyfriend who'd just so recently dumped her when they had met, her mother that she phoned every time she got back on the TARDIS. Ianto had never had any of that. He'd never wanted contact, but the Doctor thought he needed it. If only for a last goodbye. This life was dangerous, and he didn't want Ianto regretting any of it if he chose to stay.

'How long?' since he was certain he was coming back. Cardiff held nothing for him. London held even less. The only place he felt at home was amongst the stars.

'Four months, the 23rd of September. Long enough for you to try, and if you still want to travel with me at the end of it then wait on the Plass and I'll come get you.'

'Suppose I won't change your mind on this.' The Doctor shook his head. 'Thought not.'

The TARDIS landed skilfully, the Doctor giving him a rare hug before shoving him out the door and into the fresh Cardiff breeze.

It was morning at least, Ianto jogging down the steps and towards the familiar bus stop just as the TARDIS faded from view. Four months. He could do this.

He thought briefly, as he boarded the bus, that he heard someone shout for the Doctor as it pulled out. But when he looked there was no one there. He put it down to Canary Wharf and focused on what he would say to his family when he saw them.

He thought at least he would get a cup of tea before the questions started. Yet he hadn't even stepped foot in his sister's home before he was slapped. Not just once either. By the time his mother turned up he'd been hit no less than four times, each of them accompanied by a hug and Rhiannon crying amongst her insults.

'We thought you were dead,' Rhiannon hissed, their mum still sitting in shock next to her. 'We thought you'd been blown up. Do you know what happened Ianto? Do you? Four in the bloody morning and we get a police officer turning up at our door telling us that not only was my little brother caught shoplifting but that he had probably died while doing it. If you needed money, why didn't you tell us? What was so bad that you had to disappear? Was it me? Did I do something?'

'No.' He'd been through this line of questioning six times now. It was only going to get worse when Johnny came home with the kids. He'd always been a loudmouth, no doubt he'd be having a go at Ianto sometime in the next few hours. 'Are you okay mum?' She still hadn't said anything, just looking at Ianto like he was a ghost. Just thinking down that line had his blood running cold, the memories still fresh since, for him, it'd only been a few hours ago.

He got slapped again, 'Of course she's not bloody okay. You died, we thought you'd died Ianto.'

The next few days were much the same. Rhiannon was happy to have Ianto stay over, not wanting to let him out of her sight in case he disappeared again. Johnny was funny around him, once the shock of Ianto being brought back to life had worn off, the more unsavoury part of his story seemed to stick in Johnny's mind. He'd heard more than once Johnny ask Rhiannon if it was wise to have a known thief in the house. Especially with the kids. She told him to shut up, but Ianto supposed Johnny kind of had a point, if only on the basis he was looking out for his family.

He found the most peace when he was put on babysitter duty, Rhiannon softening after a week of Ianto being there enough to have a night out. The kids were alright, not really knowing how to act around him either since they never actually remembered seeing him before. They behaved, watched TV and went to bed when he told them to, leaving him with nothing but his thoughts and plans for when the Doctor came back.

Two months and Ianto knew he wasn't cut out for a normal life. He'd went to three interviews, all of them for mundane jobs like bartending or a barista, and while that last one was glad to have him for his otherworldly coffee alone, he just didn't think he would be happy living like this the rest of his life. He was too old for uni, and had no time to study even if he wanted to. Between looking for a job, a way to get out of his mother's house when he was sick of staying at Rhiannons, and looking for something to liven up his day he was exhausted by the time his head hit the pillow.

He thought he would be okay without the excitement of living in the TARDIS in his life. He'd never been one for adventure he'd told himself, but, looking back, he'd never complained about it either. He'd gladly followed when the Doctor told him to. He even enjoyed himself sometimes when he thought he wouldn't. He was more adventurous than he gave himself credit for, and it was because of this that he knew this life, the one the Doctor wanted him to try out, wasn't for him.

He was walking home one night after another failed interview, which he might have purposefully fobbed off, when he saw something he never expected to in Cardiff. The moon was out, for a change, and Ianto had been using its light to lead the way home when it was abruptly cut off by an overlarge shadow.

He recognized those wings instantly. The shape of its beak. The claws. He's spent hours watching beings just like it fight over bushes and water. A pterodactyl. There was a pterodactyl in Cardiff.

He spared a thought to run to the shop, remembering what the Doctor had said about cocoa. Chocolate was kind of like cocoa beans, and hopefully it would keep the thing happy until he figured out what the hell he was going to do.

He chased it down, his legs complaining about the strain after so long staying still. Eventually it stopped near a warehouse, Ianto managing to coax it in when it saw him with one of the bars he'd bought. It ripped the chocolate apart, cooing happily as Ianto checked all the other exits so it couldn't get out. Making sure it was happy with another bar, he went outside to think.

He didn't have a way to contact the Doctor, and unless he found a way to keep a pterodactyl fed and watered for two more months it didn't look like he would be able to hold off until the Doctor did come. Unit he supposed was always an option. He'd heard the Doctor speak fondly of them, or just people in there, on occasion. If it weren't for their guns he would think the Doctor would be liaising more often with them. He was sure such a big corporation could keep a pterodactyl. Either that or they'd shoot it on sight.

He groaned, slumping to the ground. He never should have followed the pterodactyl. It probably would have been happy munching on the Cardiff wildlife and Ianto certainly would have been ignorant of it. He wouldn't have known and therefore care what happened. But he'd seen excitement and ran.

He spent an hour listening to the poor thing try to escape before signs of life pulled up. A black SUV with Torchwood painted on the side screeched to a halt. Ianto scrambled up, thoughts of Yvonne and her inhuman corporation filling his mind. They must have known about the pterodactyl, some part of those people must have rebuilt, and now they'd come for the pterodactyl.

He found a pipe hidden amongst the outside of the warehouse. Hefting it firmly in his arms, and knowing it did nothing against a gun, he braced himself to fight.

A girl was the first out, small and dark she was babbling about a spike and rift as she followed some device in her hands. She was followed by a man, complaining at the top of his voice like there wasn't anyone that could hear him and come looking. He went around the back, pulling out what looked like a tool box. Ianto had seen them back in Canary Wharf. Some of them had been full to the brink with medical equipment while others had more ammunition that was wise inside such a small box.

'Are you sure this time?' the man asked. 'Because if we get there and it's disappeared again I'm going for an early drink.'

'It's here Owen,' she snapped. 'the readings say it's been stuck for about an hour.'

'Whatever _it_ is,' Owen scoffed, dropping the toolbox and taking a gun out. 'Right, let's get this over with.'

Ianto took that as his cue, running out of the bushes, kicking aside the box and knocking the gun out of Owen's hands before he could even try to raise it. 'You're not laying your hands on it. I don't care if it's alien, it's not yours and you're not getting it.' He raised the pipe, the means on how they weren't getting it clear should they take another step.

Owen held his hands up, looking far more frustrated than he had getting out of the SUV and turned to the girl, 'Jack's going to kill us for letting a civilian see it.'

'That's not my fault,' she snapped. 'it moves _quickly_.'

Something in her tone had Owen sighing, turning back to Ianto and giving him one of the more condescending looks he'd ever seen, and Ianto had been mistaken for a Time Lord's rent boy, he knew condescending. 'Look mate, that thing you're protecting is an alien.'

'I know.'

'Right,' Owen agreed, 'And do you know what will happen if people see an alien. They'll go nuts. We're talking anarchy in less than twelve hours. But us, see, we're from this thing called-'

'Torchwood, I know who you are.' That threw the two of them for a loop. 'And I know what you do to aliens so you're not getting this one.'

Owen sent another look to the girl, 'He isn't what we're looking for is he?'

The girl consulted something on her machine, the odd angle she was holding it to appear unthreatening giving her more than a moment pause. 'No. Apparently it's in the building.'

'Good,' Owen said before he whipped something from the back of his belt and Ianto fell to darkness.

He woke dazed, his eyes refusing to open and his head pounding. Whatever Owen had hit him with had been hard. He tried to tune into the rest of the world, hoping his brain would come back online since there was something important he was supposed to be doing. However, the only thing he could hear were the voices above him, all of them confusing and unfamiliar in his state.

 _'Can't believe you knocked him out.' A girl, that was definitely a girls voice. One he'd heard before too. Probably the one with the tech._

 _'What was I supposed to do, just let him talk and lose the alien again. Come on Tosh, you know this was the easy route.'_

 _'Doesn't mean it was right. We have retcon for a reason. Oh God Jack's here. You better hope you didn't kill him.'_

 _'He's fine. Concussed probably but fine. Still, wonder how he got that thing in the warehouse. Took three bullets to subdue there's no way this scrawny thing managed to wrestle it in there.'_

 _'He didn't have anything on him.' There was the screech of tyres, a loud bang and some footsteps racing past the voices. 'I'm going to help Jack get that thing in the SUV. Make sure he doesn't die.'_

 _Another set of footsteps faded away, a thump next to him and a soft touch at his head taking his attention for the time being. 'Honestly, it's not like I'm a doctor or anything. I do know how to hit someone. You're going to have a right bad headache when you wake up mate.'_

 _The fingers left, Ianto fighting back the darkness again, something making him hold on. He had to know something, help someone. Rose? No, she was gone. The Doctor was gone too. He didn't remember. There was a dragging noise coming past him, grunts and tyres groaning under weight before an 'Aha!' and a door slammed._

 _The two sets of footsteps came over to him, the girl saying something about impeding the mission._

 _'Wait,' the new voice interrupted. Not new, familiar. But somehow wrong. He thought again of Rose, Cassandra in her body. Was this man using someone else's voice as well? A hand was back on Ianto's head, turning him slightly. 'I know him. I know-' the hand was gone, the man, whoever he was, running off shouting, 'Doctor!'_

 _The darkness welcomed him back._

He woke in a bed that was definitely not his own since he was still paying for his disappearance by being subjected to the sofa no matter who he stayed with. It was hard under his back, but the sheets were soft, and the smell so familiar Ianto felt he could drift in it for days.

Sitting up had his head pounding, but, he cheered at the fact he could open his eyes. The room was dark for the most part, underground somehow, and cramped beyond belief. But there was light up ahead, a small patch of it lighting up the rungs of a ladder. He thought for a moment he was in a sewer, maybe some kind of mole people had kidnapped him, then his brain kicked back online and he remembered everything. The pterodactyl, Torchwood. Oh God.

Stumbling to his feet, he hoped he hadn't made too much noise. If he was in a Torchwood holding facility, he needed to get out fast. Thoughts of being trapped down here if a cyberman or… Dalek were to invade again had him racing for the ladder, poking his head through the shaft of light to make sure there was no one immediately waiting or watching for him.

The rungs were hard to clamber up for someone who had been forcibly knocked out. He stumbled twice, and thanked God that it was a short climb and there was nothing chasing him. He peered above the last rung, the manhole opening up into an office. With no one here either, Ianto made quick work of locking the place down and figuring out where he was.

If this was Torchwood, they weren't very well versed on his file. If there was one thing they should have done it was lock him up more securely. Another, make sure there wasn't a computer within his reach. Thirdly, create a better password since this one was far too easy to crack- whoever it was had it written on a sticky note.

He checked the mainframe, surprised at some level of security keeping him out of select files. The CCTV however was able to be accessed by this computer, the screen changing to one of many cameras stationed around the building. His heart beat softer now he was certain he wasn't in Canary Wharf. He'd checked the logs three times to make certain there were no familiar rooms. In fact, it looked like he was in some kind of pimped out sewer base. The alien tech was all around, as was befitting of Torchwood, but for the most part it looked like it had been hastily shoved together with whatever leftovers London didn't want.

The people were easy to find, one of them sitting at a desk, clicking away on a computer. The other three were in some kind of open room, the back wall missing to let out into the rest of the base. They were chucking and, fluffing by the looks of things, shirts and straw to make some kind of nest the pterodactyl Ianto remembered he'd tried to save sulking very much alive in a corner.

Despite the whole thing being dark the camera picked up a lot. Enough for Ianto to see that there was indeed just three of them there, and to check in the rest of the hub that this was all the resistance he had between getting out of this place.

He checked their positions again, among searching for the nearest thing he could use for a weapon when his blood went cold. One of the three people in the pterodactyl's new nest had turned towards the camera. He was handsome, charming Ianto remembered, and had smiled at him before sending him to the Doctor. _'I know him- I know-'_ fled through his mind. Words that had meant nothing at the time, but thought of again, with that voice, that voice he'd thought was wrong because it was dead, held another meaning altogether.

He didn't care he was probably concussed, and should maybe lie down for at least another hour. He didn't care he was probably going into shock and the last thing he needed was to run around. All he could think of was the route to get up to the pterodactyl's nest, his feet carrying up memorised stairs until he was standing, seeing that face long gone to the Daleks, in real life.

'Jack.'

It was impossible. He looked the same. The same man who had caught him and danced with him next to big ben. Who hurt his head trying to impress the Doctor. He didn't have a scratch on him, and yet looked almost scared when he turned around to face Ianto.

'You're awake.'

'Awake? You're alive,' he countered. 'How?'

'Rose.'

Rose. He was going to have to hear that story again, his brain missing vital information for it to all make sense. That or his concussion was making a reappearance.

Someone else cut in before Ianto could ask more. Owen, if he remembered correctly, the man who had knocked him out. 'Not to be a killjoy but we have a pissy pterodactyl here. If you two could kindly hold off this love fest til later I'll be much happier.'

'They like chocolate,' Ianto said, three pairs of identical confusion directed at him. 'That's how I got it in the warehouse. They like chocolate. Preferably dark.'

There was silence, broken by Jack laughing much louder than he should with a pissy dinosaur just metres away. 'You heard him Owen. Dark chocolate. Suzie keep an eye on her until I get back, I need to make sure Ianto doesn't collapse on his way back down.'

'Yes sir,' they saluted sardonically, Ianto paying them little mind.

It was one thing to hear Jack, another to touch. Jack had him by the elbow before his feet could leave him, the two of them making their way carefully down the stairs and back to Jack's office.

'I might have to put a lift in. Don't fancy having to climb all those stairs to feed her,' Jack grinned, his face getting happier and more alive the longer Ianto looked at him.

'Not all that fond of lifts.'

'Since when? Some good times can be found on them you know.'

'Not for me.' They both remembered the Daleks, Jack's face falling. He didn't know who moved first but before Ianto could even think they were hugging, Ianto remembering just how nice it was to be held by Jack. 'You're alive.'

'I'm alive,' Jack insisted. 'And I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.'

They parted, Jack helping Ianto back to his office for a very long, overdue conversation. He remembered the Doctor later, telling Ianto that he needed to spend some time with his family. He wondered if the Doctor knew Jack was still alive, that shout he heard on the bus more than just an echo of Canary Wharf. He wondered if the Doctor knew he had long given up on this world, of being normal, and if this 'spending some time with family' was his way of giving Jack and Ianto a little bit of happiness.

He would have to ask him. They both would. But until the 23rd 53 days away from now came, he would just be happy that there had always been someone he wanted to see waiting for him.


End file.
